Getting to know all about you…

I follow my former student Ann’s blog and her latest post was inspired by an Austin blogger’s post about getting to know other bloggers. So, why not?

1. do you watch/read the news?
~After 911, everything was so dismal, I stopped watching to keep from becoming depressed. Slowly, I started watching the weather then local fun stuff then morning news. That was about it. Then I learned that most (if not all) news is glorified gossiping. Especially local news. So I stopped again, except the occasional bit trying to catch morning weather forecast.

2. how would you describe your “look”?
~Convenient. I’ll wear a dress to work and people ask me what’s the occasion. My answer? “I didn’t feel like matching a top to a bottom.” I teach high school band so there are unexpected time of hauling stuff and I need to be able to help out and not risk my “nice” clothes. I’m also on quite a budget being that I’m a high school teacher and trying to get out of debt.

3. did you play sports in high school or college?
~I was in the marching band. It is a sport, I promise.

4. would you rather give up lipstick/gloss or high heels?
~I think as long as I have lip balm, I’m good. I hate flats so I can’t give up high heels. No way.

5. what’s your favorite show to watch on tv?
~At what time slot? I’m addicted to TV and I’m not ashamed.

6. would you rather bake or cook?
~I leave the baking to my sister and I love to cook. Keep reading more of the blog and you’ll find some of the things I’ve cooked on here.

7. shorts or skirts?
~I prefer dresses to skirts, first of all. But shorts v. skirts? Gosh, I think that depends on the occasion.

8. what’s your favorite scary movie?
~NONE, thanks.

A little poetry

I’m not much of a poet. In fact, I don’t GET most poetry. My boyfriend doesn’t understand how I can’t like or even get most poems but he doesn’t like jazz so I guess that balances us to some degree.

Several years ago, we were either at a dress rehearsal or performance of our school’s production of South Pacific and the phrase “open the Blue Shades” wouldn’t leave my brain. After pondering it a bit, I realized that Blue Shades is a title of a wind band piece composed by Frank Ticheli. The next day, I went online and looked up his other titles and realized a nice poem could come by combining the titles of the works he’d written up to that point. It doesn’t contain all his titles up to that point but most of them and I’m not sure that I actually ever finished it. I hope you enjoy my little poem. There’s no title to the poem itself since it contains so many in it. 😉

I have Gaian Visions
of the Proud Vesuvius
as it takes is Wild Nights
lit by Nitro.

Don’t live locked in your Fortress
like your Portrait of a Clown.
Open the Blue Shades
and let the Sundance.

When you are off
in your Sanctuary,
send me a Simple Gift.
Even if it’s just a Postcard.

From the Shenandoah
to the Pacific,
I sing a Fanfare,
my Second Symphony
as the Amazing Grace
of The American Elegy.

So, that’s it – my first “published” poem. Yes, some of it is a little forced but again, I’m not a student of poetry by any means. I hope you enjoyed it!

But do they know what they want to say?

There’s a budget crisis in Texas. Actually, it’s a national budget crisis but that’s not what this post is about. Many State workers, including educational employees, are scrambling to either find a way to save their jobs or at least the integrity of their profession. The stress of this have trickled down to our students and they’re feeling the crunch of upcoming shortcomings.

Human nature tends to make our brains try to fill in holes we may have in the facts and kids being kids, easily fall into that trap even more so than adults. There are a lot of possibilities for “band aids” on how to make school work for next year. There’s talk about:

  • going from an A/B block schedule to a 7 or 8 period day,
  • having a 4 day on, 3 day off school week,
  • increasing class size,
  • laying off teachers,
  • etc. – the suggestions are endless
  • in helping to relieve some of the financial woes our government has put our districts into. What’s the best answer? Your guess is as good as mine since band aids on this type of a problem are only temporary and usually lead to bigger problems. So, as kids hear the possibilities being tossed around out of context, they take it as gospel and get upset that their world (as they know it) is going to change. Well of course, they’re kids. And good for them for wanting to do something about it and their parents for supporting them in projecting their voice. BUT, what everyone needs to understand is that walking out of class, causing havoc during lunch, getting upset in classes is not going to help create a positive change. Not enough people understand that the school districts are being given their annual “allowance” by the State and are having to make due with pennies compared to what they’ve operated from before.

    When that happens in a kids life, they go find a job (if they’re old enough) or whine and cry to their parents until they get what they want (I got a job ’cause crying to my parents wasn’t going to change what little they had to share with me when I was a teenager). When that happens on a government to school basis, neither is going to offset the millions of dollars they’re talking about. There’s no choice than to make changes because they district only has what they’ve been given from the State.

    Let’s review – who has control of the money districts operate from? The State government. Tell me how walking out on classes and standing around the outside of campus is going do any good? OH, the media is going to talk about it – probably not, folks. There are school districts having to lay off anywhere from 500-2000 employees. Those are the districts the media wants to talk about. Our school district has actually made some smart moves with their rainy day fund and are willing to dip into it to offset some of the shortfall from the State. Being proactive isn’t what the media wants to talk about – it’s not “good news” (except it is actually good news).

    Speaking of rainy day fund, why isn’t the State dipping into theirs? Are they waiting for a monsoon or something? I think a multi-billion dollar deficit could be considered a bit more than just a sprinkle. In fact, I’d call that the monsoon!

    So, writing this blog entry – is that going to solve anything or put a band aid anywhere? No. And I know that. Is that going to make kids smart enough to know that disrupting the last of their well funded education days they have left isn’t going to help the situation? Probably not. But it makes me feel better. And right now, that’s all I can do.

    Love you, mean it.
    ~C

    Dudamel on PBS

    I’m putting this here because it’s a video I want to watch when I have time. He’s an amazing conductor and musician so it’s probably worth many people watching. If you watch it before I do, tell me what you think. 🙂

    http://video.pbs.org/video/1686154811

    Later?

    Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven’t thought about it, don’t have it on their schedule, didn’t know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

    I got to thinking one day about all those people on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I’ve tried to be a little more flexible.

    How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn’t suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word ‘refrigeration’ mean nothing to you?

    How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched ‘Jeopardy’ on television?

    I cannot count the times I called my sister and said , ‘How about going to lunch in a half hour?’ She would gas up and stammer, ‘I can’t. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain’ And my personal favorite: ‘It’s Monday.’ She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

    Because People cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

    We’ll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Tommy toilet-trained. We’ll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet. We’ll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

    Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of ‘I’m going to,’ ‘I plan on,’ and ‘Someday, when things are settled down a bit.’

    When anyone calls my ‘seize the moment’ friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you’re ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

    My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It’s just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

    Now…go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to…not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? ;And why are you waiting?

    Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.

    Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ‘How are you?’ Do you hear the reply?

    When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow.’ And in your haste, not see her sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say ‘Hi’?

    When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift….Thrown away…. Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

    Show your friends how much you care. Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND including me if you consider me a friend. If it comes back to you, then you’ll know you have a circle of friends.

    To those I have sent this to… I cherish our friendship and appreciate all you do.

    ‘Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance!’